Little Goffy

I'm pretty dirty on Melksham because I feel like he let us down badly last year. Certainly there's no current reason to believe that he would come in and be better than Jones. Must prove he's got it together again at VFL level before I would trust him. Tom McDonald I've mentioned elsewhere that I would keep him because even as a forward having a bad day he kept working and keep the forward pressure on which may have done a lot to restrict GWS counter-attacks. Edit: I checked some numbers and even McDonald's bad day was better than most of what Melksham served up last year. Don't have a strong opinion other than that. There's a few touch and go - do you give the kid Sparrow another run because he kept doing team things and working hard? Does Jetta have a match-up against Geelong? Side note: Cameron Bruce was injured at the first bounce of round 4 2005 by Brent Guerra driving his shoulder into the ground. The game was against St Kilda but Guerra himself transferred to Hawthorn the next season so we would all have memories of booing him for eight years in a Hawks jumper. Confusion resolved.

Bit of a bump but I just wanted an appropriate place to note; I really, really liked Luke Jackson's game against GWS yesterday. What I found most interesting and pleasing was that after starting the season with a whole lot of moments that were 'almost amazing' Jackson had a very different game in Canberra. I kept seeing him just doing basic things, being involved, making a contribution in small ways. Calmer play. Much less spectacular but much better football and if he can settle those basics into his game it will take a lot of mental pressure off him and hopefully in future allow him to be both reliable and spectacular. I swear every champion player who has ever opened their mouth and made a sound has at some point said 'do the basics well'. If Luke Jackson is listening to that, then we've got ourselves a winner.

The last time we had a coach with a positive win-loss balance was Neale Daniher in 2006 (dropped to 48.5% in 2007). Goodwin currently on 43/43 home and away win/loss and 2/1 in finals. 51%, baby! Fifty-one per cent! Wooooo!

I'm just going to contribute a quick observation on Tom McDonald. At the end of the game, with the camera lingering on him for what seemed like eternity, he looked seriously unhappy with his effort. That made perfect sense after the number of times he just didn't get it right tonight. BUT Many have cited that in the last couple of years we have been seriously deficient for tackles inside 50 and it was a key reason we we so keen on Pickett. Tom McDonald is the current AFL leader for tackles inside 50 after picking up 4 tonight. He made a contribution tonight even if he had a bad game. Most importantly he didn't drop his head and he kept working and working. You don't drop a player for one bad game when their attitude is still intact and team-first. Especially when they've shown some signs of regaining their better form in the previous couple of weeks.

6 Gawn 5 Pickett 4 Lever (Was given huge responsibility to hold a position that was constantly exposed, allowing others to be free) 3 Viney 2 Langdon 1 Brayshaw (tie break with several others was the fact he is beginning to show promise in his wider role)

Last week I noticed every time anyone kicked a goal, Nibbler was right there with them to celebrate, so who celebrates with Nibbler when he kicks a goal? :D

Thanks for that, and that's some respectable numbers too.

If you trawl through the stats he is about mid-rank among our best 22 at the moment, with some better and some below average. That roughly matches the impression I've had from the games, too. Would be silly to say he is starring but he has been a solid contributor in a team which very much needed solid contributors to fill our a somewhat brittle game-day sheet. Touch wood, tap that shiny nogg'n, and may 2021 continue to be a proudly workmanlike season from the veteran. And whatever else happens he'll always be better looking that his brother.

Just terrible organisation. How anyone is getting paid to make such a mess of pretty simple content is beyond understanding.

We really should target a recruit to do that! ?? (just having a laugh) But seriously, yes, please, can someone properly get a hold of it for us soon. That's where the real fun smashings start.

It goes waaaaay back, actually. It's almost as uncanny as Melbourne disproportionately playing sides with new coaches. We outright broke the will of a few teams back in the 2004-2006 run. Very strange stuff - we would play teams which were in the eight when they were our opponents but then by the end of the H/A season they wouldn't count as beating a top-8 opponent when everyone was prognosticating about finals. Still... St Kilda... this is wildly bad. Maybe a few players read the Rod Owen article pre-game and wondered exactly what all last week's proud culture talk was really worth?

On their list, by draft year with place taken in brackets: 2020 - Campbell (5), Gulden (32) 2018 - Blakey (10) 2015 - Mills (3) 2014 - Heeney (18 - different bidding rules, was bid for at 2 - by us!). Also Hiscox and Foote with late selections. In effect, they've had three additional top-5 selections courtesy of the academy, as well as pick 10 and 32. I guess to consider the impact that has on a club you can just imagine what it would do for the fortunes of a club on the mid ladder range to add pick 2, 3, 5, 10, and 32 to a single draft. Yes, they gave up selections to get them but it is nothing in the same field. I wonder if any other club has had more selections inside the top 5 in that time?

That was compelling reading, and I don't normally engage with in-depth personal stories of tragedy so much. I don't know if there was any direct connection but the comments about the all too brief flicker of optimism at Melbourne led me to do some remembering. For what it is worth as a reminder that help does actually help, and maybe if anyone feels like making a donation, too - https://www.reach.org.au/

Finally it goes through, when just the time it took to take the shot was enough to seal the game!

Anyone else want to make a tip for who will finally kick the sealer for us? Personally I feel like Zanker is lurking like a shark and could suddenly cut through the play which at the moment is being slowed right down by nervous skill errors all over the place.

Mcgee with a rebound 50 that was almost an inside 50 as well. Don't see that too often!

Nooooooooooo. Terrible goal that.

Yyyyesssssss! Nice goal that.

Some good professional coralling from Lampard there.

North really are that bad. Dogs clearly aren't going at 100% and the way the goals are accelerating it is on target to be a 100+ margin.

This will be my first time watching North closely this season. In preparation I took a little time to examine how the two teams are tracking and all that... and now I have a deep sense of foreboding. Losing to Port by almost ten goals is something several teams, even good ones, will have to stomach at times this season. Losing to the Suns like that when it isn't even clear that the Suns were particularly potent on the day - that's a worry. And the Bulldogs don't strike me as a team likely to wind it back once they are well on top. The game they are most comfortable playing is hot sabre through butterball so why would they switch to more awkward methods to 'rest'. So many potential goal scorers, so many ways to turn clearances into quick scores, so much attacking power from center bounces. I don't even like North and I feel sad. If the horror doesn't happen this week, it will just be waiting for another week.

I'm in the awkward position of only having been properly inducted to Australian Football in the very late 90s (2000 was a good season to have committed to it!) so my top 5 could only be very recent. Lots of respectable, even elite, players in that time but not many you could say were absolute greats. I have the uncanny, electric and slightly alarming feeling that I might be watching my personal top 5 Demons all at once any moment now, and that it might not even be just for my couple of decades of experience. Touching wood and keeping the lid on and all that.

Really good point. Perhaps some kind of club-run or volunteer service to help with pre-booking and then collecting physical tickets or anything else that is needed on the day from the membership booth or a merchandising stand. Definitely one of those cases where new technology rapidly went from being 'the better option' to being 'the only option, and damn the rest of you'.

Just sad that Collingwood can't lose by a shot after the siren every game.

What? Those decisions were all perfectly legitimate backward passes and everyone knows it is only a turnover after the sixth tackle.